Heisman News And Notes, May Edition

April’s NFL Draft feels like a distant memory and the start of the 2025 NFL season feels like a lifetime away, but fear not, we’ve got some Heisman-related news and notes to update you on and stave off any severe football withdrawals.

Let’s kick off with some updates on our 2024 Heisman winner Travis Hunter, who has now been through his first NFL rookie minicamp as well as his first week of OTAs (optional team activities).

Hunter focused chiefly on defense during his initial appearance in Duval with other Jaguar rookies before getting a chance to show his chops as a receiver in this week’s OTAs.

Playing with his usual zest and energy, Hunter impressed his new quarterback, 2020 Heisman runner-up Trevor Lawrence.

Said Lawrence this week: “He’s got a lot of juice. He can run all day, a lot of energy. I love it, good energy, always dapping guys up, bringing juice every day. Like I said, high motor, can just go. He’s like a kid, just runs around all day. He doesn’t get tired, it seems like. You can’t have enough of that.

“As far as just talent, it kind of speaks for itself. Ball skills, run after the catch, he’s very explosive. I didn’t realize how explosive he was in and out of cuts. You know, he’s impressive to watch, and we’ve gotten to connect a couple times. It’s only going to get better and better. We’ve only worked together for a couple days now, so we’ve got some time to really dial in on the details.”

Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen was impressed by Hunter’s non-stop motor, saying, “The one thing you notice is as a guy who hasn’t played a ton of football or been out conditioning maybe for the last two months because he was on a little bit of a (pre-draft) tour, the guy can run forever. He just kind of goes, runs a route, runs back. You could tell he’s in football shape.”

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The recently released 2025 NFL schedule featured seven international games, two with a Heisman connection. The aforementioned Hunter will join the Jaguars in an Oct. 19 tilt against the Rams at London’s Wembley Stadium while Jayden Daniels will lead Washington against Miami in a Nov. 16 game in Madrid, the NFL’s first contest in Spain.

DeVonta Smith joined the Eagles in last year’s 2024 season-opening win in Brazil over Green Bay. This month, he visited Spain as an NFL ambassador to help promote the league. He watched a soccer, er football, matchup between Barca and Real Madrid in Barcelona before visiting Madrid.

“It’s just a different culture over here, so a lot of people may not exactly know what’s going on,” Smith said. “Just getting over here to showcase the talent so they can know more about the sport.”

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We know Sam Bradford as a 2008 Heisman legend who went on to a successful NFL career. But others also remember him as an exceptional youth hockey player (more here on that) or Division I caliber hoops player or even as a prep pitcher.

Still others knew him as a talented youth golfer, for good reason, and those memories came flooding back recently.

Bradford, along with childhood friend Ben Bench, participated in one of the top U.S. annual amateur events recently when he and Bench played in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball last week.

The duo (read more on them here) qualified for the event thanks to a combined 59 at their 2024 qualifier.

Bradford and Bench fired a great opening round of par 70 in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball first round at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, N.J., but faltered a bit in the second round with a 7-over 77 and missed the cut into the match-play bracket.

Still, Bradford’s exploits likely point to even more high-level amateur golf in the future.

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Finally, let’s dig into some arbitrary but still thoroughly fun rankings of The Athletic’s list of the top 25 college football players so far this century. The list featured a decidedly Heisman flavor.

Veteran college football scribe Bruce Feldman sought input from some three dozen scouts, coaches and analysts to fashion a list that is both hard to argue with yet impossible to agree with wholeheartedly. Which is why it’s a fun exercise!

Read the entire story here.

There are 10 Heisman winners on the list as well as seven other Heisman finalists and a few others who got votes.

Feldman’s list features six Heisman winners in the top 10, including Cam Newton at No. 1. Reggie Bush at No. 2, Joe Burrow at No. 4, Lamar Jackson at No. 5, Tim Tebow at No. 8 and Hunter at No. 9. Also on the list is Smith at No. 13, Baker Mayfield at No. 14, Marcus Mariota at No. 15 and Daniels at No. 21.

The Heisman finalists include Tyrann Mathieu, Christian McCaffrey, Chase Young, Andrew Luck, Larry Fitzgerald, Vince Young and Ndamukong Suh.

Others on the list who got Heisman votes included Roy Williams and Julius Peppers. That’s some solid Heisman representation!